Do Android developers outnumber iPhone developers?

Do Android developers outnumber iPhone developers? If you believe this survey of 401 mobile developers than yes, yes they do. Vision Mobile, a “market analysis and strategy firm delivering market know-how to the mobile industry,” have a poll that indicates that more mobile application developers have experience with Google’s Android platform than with any other mobile platform, including Apple’s iOS. Developers polled cited: large market penetration, speed of development, potential to make money, and low cost dev tools as reasons for initially choosing Android. Developers indicated that they have the most experience in Android, followed by iOS, Java ME, Symbian, then “mobile web.” We should note, the poll asked developers which mobile platform(s) they had experience coding in, so it was possible to answer with multiple platforms. Hit the read link to see some additional charts from Vision Mobile.

Android may have more developer’s but they have low quality apps.. I have a Evo and a iPod touch and its hard to find a good quality app in the Android Market compared to the App Store.. Making the switch from the Palm Pre to the Evo I would have to say that the Palm Catalog has better Apps than the Android Market even if the Palm Catalog has alot fewer Apps..

HeyNow

I agree. Android has more crap developers… a lot are the rejects from Apple.

I have a Droid… but the apps are terrible. There isn’t one app. NOT one, that looks amazing or does completely what it is supposed to do, without any hiccups.

People crave for an open OS like Android for developing purpose.. but so far a closed OS is winning in the quality factor.

Joe B.

Name one quality app for Android are you serious? You are ridiculous and know damn well nearly all of the key apps for Iphone are also available for Android. And it’s actually more like 70,000 not 50,000 available, and they add 9,000+ apps every month. Android already beats Iphone in fucntionality, features, and performance, and is getting closer every month for overtaking them in app offerings.

xxx

I also have an EVO and an iPod touch… and I disagree mostly with what you say.
a) I do believe the survey is probably flawed. I mean, a sample of 400 devs? Not a very big sample size and there could be other factors that muddle the result.
b) The android market may have a higher proportion of crap-to-quality apps simply because of lack of approval process, but that’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of quality apps. I have actually downloaded way more apps that I would consider junk on my iPod touch than I have on the EVO. Games? Sure, the app store has better.. but for productivity tools (things that are actually useful), I have found everything I could want +more in the android market and have been very satisfied with the quality.
I think all these damn porn apps and other frivolous crap distract people from the quality stuff. And I really wish Google would set up an approval/rating system and simply provide us with filtering options to show only ‘Google Approved’ apps. Still let the rest of the crap in, but hide it by default.

HeyNow

name some apps then… out of 50,000 or so apps.. please list the quality apps…

Go on trying naming 100 of these apps.

xxx

First of all.. no. I already waste too much time on here. Second, why would I bother? So you can pick out a couple of them, then google them to find a user complaint (because there will *always* be some, regardless of app or platform), then use it to tell us what crap it is? No.
But not being one pass up on a good little bit of troll bait, I’ll post a link of people discussing their favorite apps for the evo. I know you’ve made up your mind, so you’ll just pick a few apps out of it and tell us you used them and they’re crap, but others might find it informational regardless.http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/105074-must-have-android-apps.html
Enjoy.

HeyNow

No… i seriously wanted to know. lol

Also why would I google them? What am I 12?

I would download it and use it and see for myself…. like a person who owns a droid lol….

Do you google and look for user complaints? Seems like you know about it, since you assumed I would.

Also… How am I a troll? Because I do not like the quality of the Droid Market place? Or is it because I have a different opinion of it from yours…

So you can assume what I might do and make an Ass out of yourself. I will be sitting back and well….still smiling =]

Killah Kyle

Hey, the android craze is still just beginning. If you haven’t noticed a huge flaw when android first came out was its underpowered devices. So they couldn’t handle much from an app at the time. That’s officially changed. People have been devouring the beefed up android phones like no tomorrow. Developers are going to flock to the android os because of the potential money. If you honestly think developers are going to stay apple loyal with such a huge profit to be made you’re an idiot. Sure the iOS has the upper advantage now, but that’s going to end.

StevenGlansburg

It should also be considered that a developed for Android could be just a regular user that makes an “app” which is merely a widget or color scheme change for an already existing app. I’d be curious to see how many Android apps there really are if Google cut out of all those “apps.”

xxx

Yeah, I find that stuff really annoying when scrolling through market search results. Like I said above, I wish Google would come up with some kind of rating or tagging system to allow us to filter out the junk. It gives the market a bad name. Some people can’t seem to see beyond it and realize most of the stuff we really want is in there and actually quite good.

shawn

Low quality apps my ass…stop including your porn apps. Apps are only as good to which benefits users the most. The point is there are more developers and the number will be increasing tremendously as other Android phones drop, which comes more frequently than iPhones.

HeyNow

More developers does not mean quality….

John

Android has a stable of quality apps. But they also have a shitload of crappy apps. Anyone that says otherwise has no experience with the Android Market.

HeyNow

yes 1 good app to every 1000 crap apps….

StevenGlansburg

Android seriously needs some quality control. There are pages upon pages of apps that do the same thing (task killers, stop watches, to do lists, etc). Additionally the rating system doesn’t work…. I swear to god everything is 4 and half stars no matter how shitty the app is….well except iheartradio, which is just awful for Android.

Sliznut

How do you figure? I have ihearradio on my moto droid and audio quality is generally better than the stations ON the radio. I haven’t had any issues with it. And also, if you look at the app ratings there are quite a few with like 1-2 stars and people saying “This sucks. Force closes all the time.” etc.

John

And there’s also more than quite a few that are absolutely awful and still have four stars.

DroidFan

Amen John. But that said the Android Market more and meets my needs. Quality developers will provide the market (Android or otherwise) what it wants.

John

I agree. The Android Market is not terrible, but it can do better. For 95% of users the apps that are out there will be fine. The biggest problem is wading through the shit in order to find them.

I’ve used both the Market and App Store quite extensively, and I think what’s generally missing in the Market is a level of quality control that the App Store has. Even if the App store has some pointless apps, its harder to find them because the good apps are brought to the user’s attention. If Google was a little more active, they could fix it.

MikeD

Agreed.

For that matter all of the App stores have their share of Gems and crappy apps.

gayu

Till June end over 10,000 developers had submitted applications to the Google Market Place, whereas over 55,000 developers had submitted applications to Apple App Store. This clearly shows how wrong this survey is.

Sliznut

Not entirely. Did you see that they said multiple platforms could be chosen? A lot of iOS devs have ported the same program to Android and/or done some developing on it, so they could say iOS and Android. Plus, some “developers” are just idiots that make an “app” that is a shortcut to the damn website they made the “app” for. lol

shawn

Yes, more developers doesn’t equal greater quality but how many apps are we talking? Thousands, there is an uninstall app available, if the app sucks uninstall it. If you want a better quality app code it yourself which Google allows there users to do. A plus in my book.

http://gregstechblog.blogspot.com Greg

What? A recent study showed that the iPhone had twice the developers as Android.

Sliznut

But this survey involved 400 that mostly knew Android. lol

No one

I can tell you from experience that there is little in The Market worth paying for. My wife (Android) cannot wait for iPhone on Verizon. If/When this happens, there will be a mass exodus to iPhone.

vzw rocks

I dont have an android phone just for the apps it has. I have plenty of apps i enjoy using and my fav has to be TiKL beta. I like android because of what it does without having to use a damn app. android will get better its about a year behind the 8 ball in time it will be refined and even better than it already is. And if you havent heard of TiKL beta go check it out only on android.

vzw rocks

scratch the beta on that not beta anymore but it still kicks much ass.

Xander

I can tell you from experience I have yet to find something good enough in the Apple app store to pay for. If/When Spotify comes to the US, then we’ll see if I maintain my stance.

MikeD

@Xander

A lot of the same Apps are on both platforms. I guess Android developers wouldn’t make any sale to you either.

Matthew Martin

Suddenly Apple Fanboys Everywhere

idrinkdeodorant

Wow. They surveyed 400 guys? Cool, man.

Shane

This is BS.

40% claim they have experience coding for Windows Phone when their isn’t even a Windows Phone released yet? And I’m supposed to believe this is a accurate poll? Basically they polled a small sample, the developers could say whatever they want and there is no verification.

Worthless report.

John

Windows Mobile IS windows phone. All of the current developers that have developed for Windows Mobile would fall under that.

John

No. Just no.

This survey defies all logic, and ALL other stats out there. First of all, random surveys don’t work in a situation like this; there are easy ways of figuring out the number of devs for each platform without resorting to lazy surveys like the above.

In other words: its a slow news day, so BGR decided to post this nonsense.

Sliznut

And yet here you are serving your purpose reading it and posting about it like the loyal vistor you are. lol So BGR posted a fairly shallow survey. They didn’t create the survey. If you turned on CNN/FOX/MSNBC/BBC etc and they said “Hey folks, no news today! Here’s some commercials instead!” Would that make you happier?

shawn

People do your research before posting a comment which has no credited source. I now see how Apple has so many nut riders. People would believe anything as long as its simple lol.

So I guess the answer to the OP is a resounding no, Android developers do not outnumber iPhone developers. Not by a huge margin.

MikeD

@Shawn

The only legitimate part is your first sentence.

And the rest of your sentence is insulting the Android users as well y’know.

Moses

Android is the shit!!! My Nexus one is my perfect phone!

HeyNow

I think its funny as android user myself… that as soon as anyone points out a huge problem with android.. like the lack of quality in the app store… then that person is all of a sudden a Apple fan boy…lol

GET REAL.

MikeD

This is exactly the point I make over and over. The sane Android users are made to look bad because of the nutty Fandroids. Freedom is suppose to mean you can express a differing opinion.

There are normal Apple users and normal Android users, and we all need to shut these fanatics on both sides.

Contrary to the blanket thoughts of Apple product users, Apple users complain about Apple and its products all the time. Its what forces Apple to improve. You can just go to Apple’s website its there for all to see for yourself.

I also frequent the numerous Android forums for many of the Android phones. The reality is as @HeyNow says. Its not that the Apps are bad. There seems to be a desire for more polish. Google is listening and they are slowing down the updates and plan to improve the interface.

If Google/Apple listened to the folks that think their products are perfect as is, they wouldn’t make any improvements.

Droid on @HeyNow and ignore the idiots.

jawman

Android for president.

iDroid Guy

of course they do, they’re SDK is free, and you only have to pay a one time $25 regristration fee, and with apple, it’s either $99 or $199 a year, which most people do not have when they decide to start developing apps

jonathan

This sure seems to contradict Engadgets post about the Iphone OS having more developers than android. I wonder which is more credible

Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

Joe C.

There are plenty of shitty apps everywhere, app store and android market. If google wants to really make a go at the whole market, it needs to tighten things up. I feel that google as a company is as fragmented as their os.

They need a single goal/reason for existence.

No one would argue google is king of targeted advertising and search. That is their core. Now they are trying to be the king of

Mobile os
Mobile advertising
Set top boxes
Music
Movies
Ebooks

WTF are they?!?

Sorry about the rant. It’s just aggrivating to see an old friendly search engine become big
Brother and not do it correctly

jonathan

@HeyNow, yeah I know how you feel. Even though I sport an iPhone and like android as well, I get blasted and downranked accusing me of being a Apple fanatic even though I don’t own everything apple. I still keep unlocked Nokia Nseries phones for using abroad and use Windows 7 laptop for daily and work related use. One day I may even use an android device but the attitude of rabid android fans discourages me at times.

Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

HeyNow

Finally a person with some since! It is very said actually, since the comment section is here for people to post opinions like or not…

But good to see another person here who hates the petty crap as much as I do.

Keymaker

Not true. iOS has about 3x more developers than Android. It’s all about money and Apple has the people that are really willing to pay for apps.

Keymaker

Developers follow the Money. Also not everyone who has the Android SDK is a true developer.

MikeD

Wow two in a row @Keymaker

You bring up another dynamic. Before some dork gets it twisted, this has nothing to do with which platform is better, so put your fanboy cape away.

The open methodology of Android naturally allows hobbyists to dev. Thus can easily inflate the numbers of developers. maybe more scrutiny needs to be done to figure out the true number of developers. Or don’t count them until they have an App actually in the stores.

MikeD

TRUTH!!! @Keymaker hit it on the head.

A lot on here don’t realize that at the heart of it all, it comes down to what audience is willing to pay for Apps and actually buy products when advertised. This dynamic is what motivates the developers.

Its not about the specs of the device. Its the end user they care about. I’d love to see BGR do a comparison of the figures of Paid Apps. Which users are actually buying Apps.

DgDeBx

As an Android user, I am happy to hear this.

However, I do not know if this is a large enough sample size. I learned in school that you need around 1600 people to produce accurate results.

John

This survey is garbage. Surveyed 401 developers…are you for real? Here read this Engadget article from two days ago. It was a more comprehensive study:

Some people are complaining about the quality of apps in the android market…well if you don’t like the market go to websites that offer apps, or download non market apps, or make you own!
And if you think the app store has nothing but high quality apps then you are naive to think that out of 100000 apps all of them are useful or higher quality than any on the android market. And don’t get me started on the repetitive app comment.

Ernielm

I love the guys at bgr. But I can’t help and wonder if the whole episode with the whole jobs emailgate has affected their ability or willingness, for lack of a better term(s), to run with certain stories that you may consider anti-apple, if not a little questionable. Not that I blame them, though I don’t necessarily agree. The whole story doesn’t add up when you consider other stories and the sheer number of iOS apps in the AppStore vs android apps in the market.